Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (book recommendations .txt) 📖

course, More than a wild exposure to each cause That starts i’ the way before thee.

Coriolanus — IV. 1.

 

FORTITUDE.

Yield not thy neck To fortune’s yoke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

King Henry VI., Part 3d — III. 3.

 

FORTUNE.

When fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye.

King John — III. 4.

 

GREATNESS.

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; And,—when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is ripening,—nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.

King Henry VIII. — III. 2.

 

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Twelfth Night — II. 5.

 

HAPPINESS.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.

As You Like It — V. 2.

 

HONESTY.

An honest man is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.

King Henry VI., Part 2d — V. 1.

 

To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Hamlet — II. 2.

 

HYPOCRISY.

Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.

Love’s Labor Lost — IV. 3.

 

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

Hamlet — I. 5.

 

INNOCENCE.

The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute.

Troilus and Cressida — IV. 4.

 

INSINUATIONS.

The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, That calumny doth use;— For calumny will sear Virtue itself:—these shrugs, these bums, and ha’s, When you have said, she’s goodly, come between, Ere you can say she’s honest.

Winter’s Tale — II. 1.

 

JEALOUSY.

Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ.

Othello — III. 3.

 

O beware of jealousy: It is the green-eyed monster, which does mock The meat it feeds on.

Idem.

 

JESTS.

A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it.

Love’s Labor Lost — V. 2.

 

He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.

Romeo and Juliet — II. 2.

 

JUDGMENT.

Heaven is above all; there sits a Judge, That no king can corrupt.

King Henry VIII, — III. 1.

 

LIFE.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Macbeth — V. 5.

 

We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest — IV. 1.

 

LOVE.

A murd’rous, guilt shows not itself more soon, Than love that would seem bid: love’s night is noon.

Twelfth Night — III. 2.

 

Sweet love, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.

King Richard II. — III. 2.

 

When love begins to sicken and decay, It useth an enforced ceremony.

Julius Caesar — II. 2.

 

The course of true-love never did run smooth.

Midsummer Night’s Dream — I. 1.

 

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

Idem.

 

She never told her love,— But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud, Feed on her damask check: she pined in thought And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

Twelfth Night — II. 4.

 

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.

The Merchant of Venice — II. 6.

 

MAN.

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

Hamlet — II. 2.

 

MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strained: it droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d; It blesses him that gives, and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptered sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s, When mercy seasons justice. Consider this,— That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy.

Merchant of Venice — IV. 1.

 

MERIT.

Who shall go about To cozen fortune, and be honorable Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity.

Merchant of Venice — II. 9.

 

MODESTY.

It is the witness still of excellency, To put a strange face on his own perfection.

Much Ado About Nothing — II. 3.

 

MORAL CONQUEST.

Brave conquerors! for so you are, That war against your own affections, And the huge army of the world’s desires.

Love’s Labor’s Lost — I. 1.

 

MURDER.

The great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded, That thou shalt do no murder. Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his band, To hurl upon their heads thatbreak his law.

King Richard III. — I. 4.

 

Blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries, Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.

King Richard II. — I. 1.

 

MUSIC.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted.

Merchant of Venice — V. 1.

 

NAMES.

What’s in a name? that, which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo and Juliet — II. 2.

 

Good name, in man, and woman, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing. ‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands: But he, that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that, which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.

Othello — III. 3.

 

NATURE.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

Troilus and Cressida — III. 3.

 

NEWS, GOOD AND BAD.

Though it be honest, it is never good To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell Themselves, when they be felt.

Antony and Cleopatra — II. 5.

 

OFFICE.

‘Tis the curse of service; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first.

Othello — I. 1.

 

OPPORTUNITY.

Who seeks, and will not take when offered, Shall never find it more.

Antony and Cleopatra — II. 7.

 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries: And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

Julius Caesar — IV. 3.

 

OPPRESSION.

Press not a falling man too far; ‘tis virtue: His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct them.

King Henry VIII. — III. 2.

 

PAST AND FUTURE.

O thoughts of men accurst! Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

King Henry IV., Part 2d — I. 3.

 

PATIENCE.

How poor are they, that have not patience!— What wound did ever heal, but by degrees?

Othello — II. 3.

 

PEACE.

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser.

King Henry IV., Part 2d — IV. 2.

 

I will use the olive with my sword: Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other’s leech.

Timon of Athens — V. 5.

 

I know myself now; and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.

King Henry VIII. — III. 2.

 

PENITENCE.

Who by repentance is not satisfied, Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleased; By penitence the Eternal’s wrath appeased.

Two Gentlemen of Verona — V. 4.

 

PLAYERS.

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.

As You Like It — II. 7.

 

There be players, that I have seen play,— and heard others praise, and that highly,— not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

Hamlet — III. 2.

 

POMP.

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we must.

King Henry V. Part 3d — V. 2.

 

PRECEPT AND PRACTICE.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree: such a bare is madness, the youth, to skip o’er the meshes of good counsel, the cripple.

The Merchant of Venice — I. 2.

 

PRINCES AND TITLES.

Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honor for an inward toil; And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares: So that, between their titles, and low name, There’s nothing differs but the outward fame.

King Richard III. — I. 4.

 

QUARRELS.

In a false quarrel these is no true valor.

Much Ado About Nothing — V. 1.

 

Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

King Henry VI., Part 2d — III. 2.

 

RAGE.

Men in rage strike those that wish them best.

Othello — II. 3.

 

REPENTANCE.

Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours give leisure to repent.

King Richard III. — IV. 4.

 

REPUTATION.

The purest treasure mortal times afford, Is—spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest I— a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

King Richard II. — I. 1.

 

RETRIBUTION.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us.

King Lear — V. S.

 

If these men have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God.

King Henry V. — IV. 1.

 

SCARS.

A sear nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery of honor.

All’s Well that Ends Well — IV. 6.

 

To such as boasting show their scars, A mock is due.

Troilus and Cressida —